Monthly Archives: July 2011

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The England pitches are said to be seamer friendly and are supposed to assist genuine swing bowler’s and if i say that the bowlers had a feast with the ball swinging both ways , you would think and may be say that’s usual but what if i say the ball was swinging and creating angles that even a expert in geometry would struggle to define. Yes, The swing the ball was doing in the 1st day of the Trent Bridge was way above a bowler’s dreams , The ball would take off suddenly from outside the off and would be heading to flip the bails on the top of the leg stump like that one similar to a Warne’s magic delivery(but the opposite direction!). Those people who witnessed the dismissal of Swann would agree.

India Vs England,1st Test,Lord’s
The 5 days of the Lord’s Test is over and the battle had been won by the deserved England , what do you expect from a match where India struggled and failed to Bowl out the English side . There wasn’t clearly a session dominated by India in this match and top guns failed to make a mark by which at-least a draw could been managed that would have uplifted the spirit of India for the remainder of the series.

Enter the day every Indian were resting all there hopes upon two of their finest batsmen who have turned up on most of the occasions when India needed them and the sense of hope that if the two managed to hold onto their creases for at-least up-to Lunch , the hope of securing a draw would have been realized but the English bowler’s were very much aware that nothing of that sorts would happen and their grip on the match would not be let loose on the final day. The pitch curator has to be appreciated that it did not die for all the five days of intense cricket with rain affecting the 1st day. The new ball was seaming to batsmen’s dislike and dravid who held on for quite some time unnecessarily poked on a ball that swung away from his body which was totally Un-dravid like and Laxman also did not hold much ground for much time Gambhir went out LBW for swann , sachin who was too defensive was sent back by Anderson’s magic,Raina and Dhoni came together in the middle to raise some hopes but dhoni was sent back nicking one to the keeper of Tremlett , Then it all came to raina to bat through with the lower order ,bhajji could not restrict his game skying one ,Praveen done by Broad, Then Raina after a courageous and meritorious knock of 78 in 212 mins himself fell for the magical Anderson exposing the last pair of ishant and the semi-Zaheer to pull out a bunny from nothing and ishant became the bunny for broad and all hell broke out as England team started celebrating their creditable victory. The amazing crowd in Lord’s showed the whole world that Test’s are not as boring as they think it is atleast when two really strong sides battling it out in the 5 th day of a test. Zaheer’s Injury cannot be taken as the reason for the lose at-least at this level of cricket.

The stage is well set for Trent bridge test

MSD has some tough calls to make

England is too comfortable with the series moving to the second match .

Let’s hope we get a mighty big battle in Trent Bridge more similar to the one we witnessed here(rather better)

India’s First innings is over and for sure did not impress anybody much with their batting prowess especially with that much amount of batting strength with them. Yes, one has to accept that it is isn’t the perfect batting track to score or lead a total of about 400 or more but with the amount of talent ,experience and expectation the Indian’s should have atleast crossed 300 without much fuss.Whatever may be said of the Indian performance one cannot take or rob away the credit that Dravid Deserves .

Dravid is one such cricketer that everybody wants to right off and does not want to credit or not too much liked but he stands up every time India needs him that too at the most important of times like the one we had in this match. That innings of Dravid if somebody has missed they have missed a real centurion inning’s i am in path of losing word’s or define it or explain the innings dravid has played. It was classy, old-school, dominating,perseverance,concentration,match-saving(at-least innings saving),glorious,elegant,amazing,etc..,..(i feel like a reality show judge). When i saw that innings of his it gave me the feeling of how a soldier should exercise his responsibilities . His age was not a criteria for describing such a inning’s. The ball’s moving in both the directions and he also was facing some grueling tests in the middle and some bit of luck too thanks to some poor slip(ing) catching but he never showed that he is out of control . It was like seeing the other batsmen in the other end playing a completely different match. He is a Pure genius who always gets slipped under the hoods for recognition for no reason ,like a unsung hero(Bangalorian’s fate! i think so, remember our Kumble).

OK! getting back to the Indian Innings, very simple . Mukund missed the much deserved Half-century , gambhir goes to a beauty,Sachin promised initially and well on course for his much anticipated 100 but abruptly stopped by broad,VVS came and went back, Raina, bhajji, zaheer and Ishant had something in common which is nothing. Dhoni showed some perseverance before the new ball did the trick and that’s It ! India bundled out for 286 with Dravid still standing tall. As i finish this Post England are batting again thanks to Dravid once again.Not to forget, Stuart Broad the tall,skinny,blonde haired,T20 captain and out of Form bowler is no more out of form he almost ripped through the top order if not for swanns dropped catch of Dravid . He is in omnius form using his height and depth of the crease and used the Lord’s slope to his mighty advantage.

It is said that Zaheer won’t bowl this innings too….. Ok, MSD give that bowling of yours an another try.

The 2000th test has already commenced in the mecca of cricket,the two top teams have already locked their horn’s in this going to be long series and the men in brightly striped ties are in their seats with their hands clapping for almost every small achievement . This is Lord’s for you , it is far more like watching sachin , it’s all history if he plays,gets out, scores 10,20,30,40,50,….100,….200,…300….400?. whatever happens in lord’s is history and the cricket history writers could also buy up a house near it as they can do their work easily and quiet closely to their home.The Indians with their strong side back is looking to strong for any team’s liking English are also looking like a team which cannot be taken lightly .

The toss of the 2000th was on air and Dhoni had the right to call it and he called it right too , India won the toss and decided to bowl first in a day of overcast conditions and darkness . India’s bowling was spearheaded by the wily Zaheer after a brief rest from the Caribbean tour and immediately with not more than 10 overs was being bowled and England @ just 19 ,India had the first laugh with Zaheer removing Cook with the ball that didn’t swing disappointingly for cook going for just 12 . The bowling supported by heavy swing and famous Lord’s slop helping Ishant & praveen with the extra bit of pace they need and Trott & strauss were having a torrid time in the middle but they saw it through and strauss when he was seemingly moving towards momentum was caught in the deep by ishant again from Zaheer for 22 with the scoreboard @ 62 . Now, KP joined trott in the middle and KP had one hell of a time in the middle with ball swinging both ways but the poor slip catching gave Kp some air to breath and Trott on the other end had no worries and he was playing as fluidly as he can as though the ball is doing nothing. Trott was a treat to watch and if only praveen and ishant made more use of their advantages after zaheer left halfway suffering a niggle(a big scare actually for India) Trott could have been troubled atleast KP could have been troubled.now the England stay @ 127/2 as the nature turned it lights off too take a nap and poured a little shower to allow the players to do the same. that was stumps for the day as England seemed to be in control of the conditions with Trott scoring the first 50 of the series.

Hope day 2 is much brighter and much dry and much to the Indian hopes Zak should be back.

The greener of the greens , the heat-less summer , the cleanest of clothes, and mildest of crowd celebrations and nonetheless gallons of beer and no no it isn’t the Wimbledon(No beer in Wimbledon!) , It is the Test series between India and England. It is one such series which still withholds the tradition of 5 tests and this is being regarded the first intense tour for the New crowned One day champions after their triumph. India still clutching to it’s No.1 spot in tests like an adamant baby and the English who are much more determined to put an end to India’s non-losing streak of 10 consecutive test series . It actually is much more respite to Indian cricket fans as this is the kind of tour they are waiting to feast on after the much boring (one has to accept!) Windies tour(I was too bored to blog it out) and after all the Indians get to have the matches telecast at a time when they won’t sleep or won’t get fired turning up for work late after a very late night slow cricket. This series actually does not have any kind of fire down it’s belly to ignite the series or any kind of enmity between the teams that would brighten up the series ,but still this series of 5 going to be grueling tests would attract more eye-balls than a exhibition match of Manchester united.

The results of the matches are to be too keenly watched by experts, fans, test enthusiasts and especially the men behind the camera’s. There isn’t too much of controversies surrounding the series as much as the gayle fiasco did for Windies tour but the good news is the Indians are back with their best team and except for Sehwag there is no big worries to the already strong batting ordered with it’s heavily armored middle order comprising of The maestro, The Wall & The ever Stylist VVS. A.Mukund who had an decent run in difficult of pitches in Caribbean would get another shot to open with Gambhir in Sehwag’s absence , Raina’s dominant comeback in the windies tour and also in the recently concluded practice match adds more strength to the armory. The bowling which is always touted as India’s Weak link especially their fast bowling department has proved much more in the carribean tour and Ishanth with his dangerous pace and short one’s along with his current form looks as dangerous as a Indian Fast bowler ever have been . Bhajji is at his usual best and munaf with his sharpened art of spining as A. Roberts would say forms a deadly quartet and OOOoooops! forgot to remind that zak is back Yes, zaheer the bowling attack this time would ne lead by the wily and cunning Zaheer khan . Strauss would have already started his prayers.

Meanwhile, The English Batting is also as strong as it can be with all their Top four Batsmen in top form. Cook & Strauss form a deadly opening pair with each of scoring centuries at will these days with Ian bell , Trott followed by Kevin peiterson (K.P)and Eoin Morgan combine to form a devastating middle order , all these batsmen have numbers to support their claim. K.P is supposed to look for runs as he is the only small weak link in the English batting armory but that is what is dangerous for India as he can come to form at any time that too in a series of 5 tests. The bowling of England was not their weak link ever and it is not this time again , Anderson considered as one of the prime swing bowlers of present times in the lines of steyn and zaheer will lead the attack for England and swann the wily fox will be ready to spin his web of disaster for India but Everybody knows the history of Spin against India , Broad the new T20 captain has too much to prove after the shabby show the previous series , tremlett or bresnan will always be there for providing the extra hand in crisis situations.

Overall, This is a mouth watering series in waiting and too many one -to- one are on their way to heat it up along the way. This series , i will not say will be going down in history as a great one, but it will prove the might of test cricket and why it is rated above all forms of Cricket.

Again OOOOooopps… Sachin’s 100th International is waiting to come this series and supposedly to everybody’s liking the next match itself.